Customer Review of SW1X DAC III SPX

I’m not good with audio language so this is likely going to be what I publish to the group chat after it has less spelling nonsense. Qualifier we did this with a single ended into a balanced pre and it made some occasional static and made the image incredibly hard to sus out during those static moments.

I spent sometime with the SW1X Dac III recently these are my thoughts in conjunction with my other recent re demo of the Vivaldi and Rossini apex with the Tambaqui from Mola Mola, as well as The Holo May for fun; I luck out as my preamp has many many inputs.

So this is not an audiophile dac, it just isn’t. Listening to the ‘the yes album’ It doesn’t do dead points of accuracy and super hammered terrible to snag some of the last bits of the voices at top registers in ‘yours is no disgrace’ it isn’t there dragging the last dying gasp of the singer. The pitch at the end for the sw1x is so very solid in form it’s not being treated as solid line in the it feels rather as a stepped ladder than a dot plot. Each note was a note and it didn’t try and pitch it different at the start or end of the note like many upsampling dacs doing dsd or dxd to make it sound extra refined.

I think it’s almost as if the Vivaldi and Rossini apex could position the music much more accurately in special points but It sure as hell took the music out of the representation process. And with complex guitars and even symphonies especially piano; I even listened to ‘the phantom of the Oprah’ the 86 edition. It was the sw1x pushing ahead in musicality this is a baby compared to the dCS and tambaqui I’ve had the privilege to have loaned to me.

I think talking about depth is important for the sw1x and how thick the image is. It’s as if I’ve had holographic representations but here’s a full human to fill that space and give it presentation. It’s hard to listen to ‘killing in the name of’ by Rage and not pump a fist.

The SW1X is however the most musical thing I’ve ever heard, and all I can do is listen to it incessantly. It doesn’t make any quality of recording anything but full of life. Nevermind by Nirvana is so important as a album as well to understand what the Dac is trying to actually say. Which is this immense honest image of the recording studio to the open mics in a bar informing the space. It doesn’t struggle with great placement ever it simply doesn’t try to place the most correct voices that can be heard possible at the sacrifice of tone and timbre. Playing ‘Revolver, Elenor Rigby’ by The Beatles the 2022 edition and the white album redone in 2020 it really allows critical listening that doesn’t ever feel demanding and that’s really hard for me as a new critical listener to sometimes do without a great deal of work and losing the larger picture. Some Dacs I’ve really got to sift through it because it calls to every noise. What makes this so special is calling attention to the elements but never losing the rhythm of the song while in the search of a drum solo’s and guitar riffs.

In short it’s what I grew up with when I was a child in the 90’s I was doing vinyl with my aunt. It feels like that’s all back again that I can feel the music flow the same way it did then but over something as simple as streaming this has been accomplished.  

If I’d wager a complaint it is that the attack on drums is slightly slow maybe medium paced compared to some of the big Dacs and behind the holo as well. Clarity could be improved on very complex choirs and instruments and more separation would also be something to be more deeply  embraced.